Thursday, April 27, 2017

While looking at the numerous Pictures and videos of the Monument removal in New Orleans-
I've spotted several O.S.H.A. safety violations in the still pictures and videos that have been posted on line. Hooking the straps directly to the forks doing the lifting is one,The straps being used in the rigging are frayed, in another one of the workers is climbing on the railing of a man lift to attach the straps, that is also a violation.Neither of the workers in the second picture have Fall Protection Harnesses on ! Another Violation ! That raises questions about the qualifications of the "Contractor's" Who I have read were Fire Fighters of the City. I have not verified this claim of Fire Fighters doing the work. ****

1910.67(c)(2)(iv)Employees shall always stand firmly on the floor of the basket, and shall not sit or climb on the edge of the basket or use planks, ladders, or other devices for a work position.

1910.67(c)(2)(v)A personal fall arrest or travel restraint system that meets the requirements in subpart I of this part shall be worn and attached to the boom or basket when working from an aerial lift.

Neither are wearing a Fall Arrest System, and one is standing on the guard rail !

Take a close look at the Straps being used !

The edges are frayed !

O.S.H.A. States ---

"Do not use worn or damaged slings or attachments. Discard or repair them."

"Where any such damage or deterioration is present, remove the sling or attachment from service immediately."

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Jesse James
**Born in Clay County, Missouri, on September 5, 1847, Jesse Woodson James was the son of Kentucky native Zerelda Cole James and her husband, Robert James, a Baptist minister and slave-owning hemp farmer who assisted in founding William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri.

*In 1863 Union soldiers visited the James farm. They were seeking information about Confederate guerrilla bands. The soldiers hurt and threatened Jesse James and his family.(** In May 1863, while at his family’s farm, a teenage Jesse was ambushed and his stepfather hung from a tree
(he survived)by Union militiamen seeking the whereabouts of Frank and his fellow insurgents.) Shortly after this incident, James joined his brother, Frank, and a guerrilla unit led by
William “Bloody Bill” Anderson.

James adapted quickly to a lifestyle that would set the pattern for the rest of his life:
plan and attack, flee and hide.

**During the 1869 bank robbery in Gallatin, the incident that first brought Jesse public notice as an outlaw, he shot and killed the bank’s cashier in an act of revenge,

thinking the man was Samuel Cox, commander of the pro-Union militia troops who had murdered guerilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson in October 1864. (In fact, the slain cashier turned out not to be Cox.) After the deadly heist, an influential pro-Confederate newspaper editor in Missouri, John Newman Edwards, befriended Jesse and went on to promote the former bushwhacker as a hero and defiant Southern patriot of the Reconstruction era. James himself wrote letters to newspapers in which he defended his actions. Through his articles and editorials, Edwards was responsible for helping to create the image of Jesse James as a Robin Hood figure who robbed the rich to give to the poor, an image that historians say is a myth.

**Catching the James became a personal mission for Allan Pinkerton,

Pinkerton was an abolitionist who had aided slaves on the Underground Railroad, uncovered a plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln and gathered military intelligence for the federal government during the Civil War.

**Shortly after midnight on January 25, 1875, a group of Pinkerton agents, acting on a tip that Jesse and Frank were at their mother’s farm (in fact, they were no longer there) carried out a raid on the place. The agents threw an incendiary device into the farmhouse, setting off an explosion that fatally wounded Jesse and Frank’s 8-year-old half-brother and caused their mother, Zerelda, to lose part of her arm. Following the raid, public support for Jesse and Frank increased, and the Missouri state legislature even came close to passing a bill offering the men amnesty. The James brothers also launched an intimidation campaign against their perceived enemies near Zerelda’s farm and in April of that year one of their mother’s neighbors, a former Union militiaman who had assisted the Pinkerton agents in preparing for the raid, was shot to death. Allan Pinkerton never pursued his hunt for Jesse and Frank any further.

**Rather than dying in a hail of gunfire while robbing a bank or train, the legendary Jesse James was brought down while dusting a picture on the wall of his rented home in St. Joseph, Missouri,

On April 3, 1882. His wife and two children were in another room at the time. James’ assassin, who shot him in the back of the head, was Bob Ford, a new recruit into his gang. Also in on the shooting was Bob’s older brother Charley, a James gang member. Earlier that year, Bob Ford had arranged with the governor of Missouri to take down Jesse in exchange for a reward. After the Fords announced to authorities they’d killed the infamous outlaw, they were convicted of murder and sentenced to hang; however, the governor quickly pardoned them.
*http://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/j/jamesj/
** http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-things-you-might-not-know-about-jesse-james

Friday, April 14, 2017

George B. Anderson was born on April 12, 1831 near Hillsboro, North Carolina. He was a graduate of West Point class of 1852, resigned his commission and joined the Army of the Confederacy at the outbreak of the Civil War. He participated in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Days, Malvern Hill, South Mountain before being wounded at the Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. He was wounded in the foot and died in Raleigh, NC on October 1862, as a result of surgery to amputate his leg. A mortuary cannon set in a block of stone is inscribed:

BRIGADIER GENERAL GEORGE B. ANDERSON

CSA*

Confederate Brigadier General Lawrence O’Bryan BranchThe monument honoring Confederate Brigadier General Lawrence O’Bryan Branch is located on the southern end of Branch Avenue.This is one of six “mortuary cannons” placed on the Antietam battlefield to honor six generals, three Union and three Confederate, who were killed or mortally wounded at Antietam.During the battle Branch was senior brigadier in A.P. Hill’s Light Division, commanding a brigade of North Carolina regiments. At the height of Hill’s successful counterattack on Union General Burnside’s Ninth Corps at the end of the battle, Branch was struck in the head and killed while conferring with Hill and his fellow brigadiers.**

A friend who was visiting Sharpsburg placed two of the coins I make.I'm happy to be able to help honor our Confederate Soldiers.It's all about honor !

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Even with the help of friends, I'll never thank them all.
Donald Caul placed this coin !

But today I thanked two more.

James Goodman Pruden

6th Virginia Infantry, Company E (2nd), Private

Pruden was born in 1841 and was a farmer in Nansemond County. He

had brown hair, grey eyes, a fair complexion and was 5'7" tall.

His wife was Mourning A. Pruden. He died February 10, 1923.
He is buried at Bethlehem Christian Church Cemetery.

Josiah Joyner

6th Virginia Infantry, 2nd Company E, Private

Joyner was born January 1, 1839. After the war, he was a farmer

in Nansemond County. He was married on February 15, 1866 to Nancy

Monroe Pruden (b.6-11-1843 d.7-9-1945). He died January 26, 1923

and is buried at Bethlehem Christian Church Cemetery. His wife

received a pension for his war services.

While I was walking around the Pastor of the Church came out and spoke with me.
I explained what I was doing, and offered to remove the coins if he had a problem with them.
I gave him two coins, and he had no problem with what I was doing.